Christ Illusion

Slayer finds no reasons to stop

Slayer keeps on bombing metal fans’ heads with completely straight-out thrash since 1984 and has no reasons to stop it. Just imagine, 22 years of non-stop action. Slayer is leaving behind 10 albums, miles of strings, forest of drumsticks and thousands of perfect live shows. For those who had ever come across the world of heavy metal this name should sound familiar. During all this years Slayer stubbornly ignores any fresh musical tendencies. They have created thrash music by themselves and they know how they should sound and what they should play better than anyone else. And this is the very best reason that helps them to keep their old devoted fans and moreover to attract the legions of new ones. So what do you expect from the new opus of this legendary metal quartet? Christ Illusion may have the status of their best album since Seasons In The Abyss. Solid and aggressive flow of guitar distorted sound, merciless speed, and unforgettable vocals of Tom Araya, multiplied by long-term experience, has made one of the most considered, high grade albums from Slayer.

Christ Illusion is an anti-religion album

The big themes on Christ Illusion center on the perverse myth of religion and its responsibility for, and cause of, war. One can talk about the power big money has at stake in the Middle Eastern havoc, but the root, according to some of these songs, is the culture war between two competing myths, Christianity and Islam; that this time out could result in the apocalypse. Tom Araya is uncompromising when choosing the words to express the ideas. There is no loyalty in his harsh expressions, which have only one meaning. The song themes are very characteristic for the band. Slayer has always loved to look at the problem from the point of view of the events’ direct participant. For example Eyes Of The Insane is a first-person narrative about a soldier who is suffering the effect of PTSD and whose sanity has been shredded by war. A song Jihad takes the theme of war to the extreme. It is written through the eyes of a suicide bomber on a mission. Musically this is brilliant, stomping, scorched-earth thrash metal at its best. An anti-Christian/anti-Islam/anti-Theocratic, anti-war album, Christ Illusion is essential for anyone interested in the genre.

Dave Lombardo is back

The most significant fact that took place on this album is the participation of Dave Lombardo. After 15 years of experiments he has nevertheless satisfied his avant-garde interests (one of his latest projects was Mike Patton’s Fantomas) and returned to Slayer’s home forge. Despite the blames in absence of new ideas, Slayer is always choosing its own way and this way has its inner development for sure. On Christ Illusion the band is looking back to where they have been to understand the direction they are following now. Lombardo played his role in it for sure. His extraordinaire style, insane breaks and machine gun like bursts of power makes you recreate the period when Slayer was making such albums as Reign In Blood and South Of Heaven. After listening to Christ Illusion it becomes clear that the band had the same problem that Metallica have always had after Cliff Burton’s death. None of the variants could exactly fit the role. Of course Slayer’s case is much less tragic but still it confirms the suggestions. The reunion of original Slayer line up has increased the potential of their new album up to the level of the best Slayer works.